Co-authors of the November Cerebrum essay, “The Brain Games Conundrum: Does Cognitive Training Really Sharpen the Mind?”Brain games—a billion-dollar industry whose revenues are predicted to surpass $6 billion by 2020—is the subject of this month’s Cerebrum article, “The Brain Games Conundrum: Does Cognitive Training Really Sharpen the Mind?” We ask a few questions of Walter R. Boot, Ph.D., an associate professor at Florida State University, and Arthur F. Kramer, Ph.D., director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology and the Swanlund Chair and professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Illinois.

Author of the October Cerebrum essay, "With a Little Help from My Friends: How the Brain Processes Empathy"Empathy—the ability to perceive and share another person's emotional state—is the subject of the Cerebrum article “With A Little Help from My Friends: How the Brain Processes Empathy.” Answering questions about her research and the latest on this aspect of social neuroscience is Peggy Mason, Ph.D., a professor of neurobiology at the University of Chicago and the author of Medical Neurobiology. Mason, whose lab is currently interested in empathetic healing and helping behavior in rats, also offers an open online course, “Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life.”